By NewsDesk @bactiman63
In a follow-up on a report from April, the World Health Assembly approved last week, the designation of a World Chagas Disease Day–A day which aims to raise public awareness of this neglected tropical disease (NTD) that affects mainly poor people.
World Chagas Disease Day will be observed on 14 April, each year. It was on this date in 1909 that the first patient, a Brazilian girl named Berenice Soares de Moura, was diagnosed for this disease by Dr Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano Chagas.
“An annual day celebrated at global level is bound to attract international attention,” said Dr Pedro Albajar Viñas, WHO Medical Officer (Chagas disease). ““These days can help to provide visibility and commit countries to enhance control interventions for a disease that has remained largely neglected, but still present in many countries.”
T-shirts, coffee mugs and other merchandise featuring the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi
To see the whole set of T. cruzi merchandise go to Chagas in Black and White
In April, the International Federation of Associations of People Affected by Chagas’ Disease
– FINDECHAGAS started a petition to the President of the WHO World Health Assembly to declare April 14 as the World Chagas Day.
Chagas disease, also called American trypanosomiasis, has also been termed as a “silent and silenced disease”, not only because of its slowly progressing clinical course but also because it affects mainly poor people who have no political voice or access to health care.
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